Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Prof. Robert George.

Washington D.C., Aug 1, 2012 / 02:03 am (CNA).- Catholic law professor Robert P. George of Princeton University is discouraging pornography use in hotel rooms by calling on hotel CEOs to consider the harm that it causes.

Pornography is part of a larger phenomenon thats rooted in the fundamental misunderstanding of sexuality, he told CNA in a July interview.

George recently teamed up with prominent Muslim intellectual Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in writing letters to the CEOs of the five largest hotel chains that offer pornography in their hotel rooms.

He explained that the move was an attempt to re-stigmatize pornography, which has been presented to the public as at worst, a kind of harmless naughtiness with no lasting personal or social effects.

However, studies show that pornography does damage to everybody concerned, including those involved in producing and viewing it, and the marriages and families into which it enters.

George said that rather than threatening a boycott or protest, the letter simply presents a moral appeal to the consciences of the businessmen, respectfully asking them to regard the women involved in pornography as their beloved daughters and wives.

It reminds respectable business people that there are some things  such as pornography  that are degrading and dehumanizing and therefore wrong even if they are legal and profitable, he explained.

We are old-fashioned enough to believe that an appeal to conscience will sometimes do the job, that everythings not money, he said. We think people are still reachable.

As an example, he pointed to the 1998 decision by Omni Hotels to remove pornography from all of its hotel rooms because the CEO believed that it was wrong to sell it.

People have a basic sense of human dignity, he said, and even if it is deeply buried, it can be reached and begin to change society.

George explained that the widespread acceptance of pornography is rooted in a very serious problem present in contemporary culture.

Young people are falsely taught to think of sexuality as mere recreation rather than something profound that is founded upon the reproductive unity of male and female, he observed.

To totally detach sexuality from its procreative dimension is at the same time to detach it from its marital significance, he said, adding that this ultimately renders unintelligible the basic norms of fidelity, sexual exclusivity and the pledge of permanence that make marriage the profound human institution that it is.

In this way, he noted, pornography has the same fundamental cause as high levels of divorce, promiscuity, widespread contraception and a push for gay marriage.

All of these problems are rooted in a general misunderstanding of the marital, conjugal significance of our sexuality, he said.

This, in turn, is tied to a false conception of what it means to be human, George continued. He explained that pornography users come to view other people as objects to be used for satisfaction and themselves as mere bundles of appetites.

They objectify themselves and others, losing the sense of true humanity, he said.

The truth, however, is that we are bearers of a much more profound dignity, capable of self-control and not slaves of our desires or lusts, he explained.

We undermine our own dignity as persons when we permit ourselves to become enslaved to our own passions, he added.

The connection between basic human sexuality and dignity is not only a religious tenant but a fundamental principle of reason, he observed. Found as far back as Plato, this is an insight that anyone of any faith and even people of no particular faith can grasp.

George hopes that his collaboration with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf will show that we can and we should be collaborating and working together in defending and promoting those values.

While the two religions are sometimes depicted as being suspicious and hostile towards each other, there are many, many values which are shared by Muslims and Christians, he explained.

Catholics should never hesitate to reach out across the theological divide and partner with people who share our basic values, he said.

George recently teamed up with prominent Muslim intellectual Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in writing letters to the CEOs of the five largest hotel chains that offer pornography in their hotel rooms.

Catholics should never hesitate to reach out across the theological divide and partner with people who share our basic values, he said.

Gee like a marriage of convenience?

To say that one must never hesitate to reach out is to say that one must leap before one looks.

One must always be careful however to consider which values one shares with those on the other side of that theological divide.

Has the good professor looked deeply in to Yusufs writings on the Muslim religion? The followers of Islam do not necessarily share the Catholic fundamental belief that all human life is sacred. The followers of Islam believe that it is a great good in the eyes of Allah to cut off the head of a Jew or other unbeliever.

Let us take care when reaching across that divide that we dont fall in to a den of snakes.

3
posted on 08/05/2012 3:34:08 AM PDT
by Pontiac
(The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)

If the Muslim is even willing to talk with him, he is probably a very Westernized Muslim who would be considered a heretic by most of his co-religionists. Mohammed with his 9 year old bride and the Muslim permission for pederasty and bestiality certainly don’t set a very good example. But there are Muslims who do the mental gyrations necessary to skip over this and adopt Judeo Christian standards.

That said, I wasn’t even aware that hotels supplied pornography in the rooms.

If the Muslim is even willing to talk with him, he is probably a very Westernized Muslim who would be considered a heretic by most of his co-religionists.

Actually plenty of Islamist are willing to talk to Western Academics. They turn them in to tools (useful idiots). They tell the Christians what they want to hear so as to deceive them and use them to blind those who will be influenced by the academic in to believing that Islam is a religion of peace.

Many of these Muslim scholars will talk of peace to the westerners while talking of Jihad to their Muslim followers.

To know who these Muslim scholars reallyy are you have to find out what they say to other Muslims.

5
posted on 08/05/2012 4:56:56 AM PDT
by Pontiac
(The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)

The truth, however, is that we are bearers of a much more profound dignity, capable of self-control and not slaves of our desires or lusts, he explained.

We undermine our own dignity as persons when we permit ourselves to become enslaved to our own passions, he added.

This is not only a question of dignity as I wonder how much emotional suffering the whole 'if you feel like doing something, do it' mentality causes today. Betrayed spouses, broken families, hurt children etc. The 60s and all that followed were truly a curse for the Western world. And I say this as an atheist.

It would be moral victory with no impact for the hotel to stop offering porn and financial loss for no good return.

Three things:

A. The hotel is offering financial loss along with porn? B. If WiFi is offered, it is but a means, not content like a programming choice on cable. C. Have you become so utilitarian as to believe that stopping a practice without a compensatory increase in a monetary return for the hotel is a "moral victory" without impact? What about being able to say, "We do not offer porn channels on our cable TV. Your kids won't accidentally tune into something they shouldn't see. We are family-friendly"? Of course, that could result in a positive economic impact, so I guess I'm utilitarian, too.

Let us take care when reaching across that divide that we don’t fall in to a den of snakes.

&&&
I know what you are saying. When I first saw something about this about a month ago, I was hesitant, as well. But, then, I decided that choosing a mohammedan was perfect, as that is the only factor keeping the left from jumping on this professor with both feet.

Have you become so utilitarian as to believe that stopping a practice without a compensatory increase in a monetary return for the hotel is a "moral victory" without impact?

No I am not an utilitarian but a realist. I see the world as it is not as I would like it to be. In the world of business only family own businesses such as Chic-A-Fila can morals be the bases for decisions.

Hotel CEOs answer to shareholders and I am realistic enough to know that if a CEO takes a decision to eliminate a revenue stream he had better have an expected tangible return from that loss of income.

As for the kid friendly angle; yes that can work. But the accidental tuning in to porn it is not a likely scenario because you have to have a credit card to tune them in. Unless you are foolish enough to leave your kids alone in a hotel room with your credit cards it is unlikely.

Given that the vast majority of hotel rooms are occupied by adults and of the adults the majority is males traveling alone I dont believe that removing porn from those rooms is a winning proposition for the operators of those hotels.

The math doesnt work and the accountants usually have the final word.

13
posted on 08/05/2012 6:58:12 AM PDT
by Pontiac
(The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)

I remember Marriott announcing a few years ago that they were discontinuing porn on tv in their properties. I do not know what they told their shareholders.

A little research just now tells me that Marriott discontinued porn in new hotel rooms because they were losing money on the service. As was pointed out in another post above, they were losing money because guests were viewing porn for free on their laptops and tablets rather than paying $19.95 to watch a porn film on-demand from the TV set.

Dropping porn wasn't a moral decision on behalf of Marriot. It was a financial one. They were paying licensing fees and whatnot from the distributors for movies that fewer and fewer people would pay money to watch. On a related note, I can't believe anyone is making money in the porn business these days. I just can't possibly see how. Who pays for porn? Anyone?

Have you been to a hotel lately? We stayed at Embassy Suites last month. Every time you turned on the television you were presented with a menu with three options. The first was for pay-per-view children’s programming, represented by a picture of Dora the Explorer. The third was the porn option, represented by a (very) scantily clad woman bending over provocatively. That’s more than I want my six and ten year old seeing, personally.

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